Tag Archives: Blogging

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I haven’t been here much. I’ve been working on a new website! While this blog will always have a special place in my heart, I realized that I have outgrown it. I decided to start fresh, with a new focus that I’m super excited about! I’m not deleting this blog right now, but I won’t be posting here anymore.

I hope you’ll all join me at my brand-new site, AshleeFit.com. I have so many things planned!

For now, it’s still under construction…But my first post is up, and I’d love it if you would take a look!

Thank you to my wonderful readers…This blog has been so much fun, and was the perfect learning experience. I hope to see you all soon at AshleeFit.com!

We’re expecting a bit of a winter storm this afternoon and evening, so it may take a couple of days for me to get to the post office…but rest assured! As soon as the roads clear you prize will be on the way to you!

By the way…I picked the winner using my super-scientific method of writing names on slips of paper and then having my mom draw one from a hat.

Congrats to Mari!

Wasn’t that fun? If you didn’t win, you’ll have another opportunity soon…I’m doing another fun beauty giveaway that involves fun nail art. Wheeeeeee!

So I don’t wear a lot of makeup… and when I do decide to slap a coat of paint on my face, I don’t want to fuss with it much. I am also a major tightwad, so any products I actually pay for need to be inexpensive or I’m not buying.

That’s why I love, love E.L.F (eyes lips face). This brand is super cheap and the products are awesome!

My first experience with the brand was their daily brush cleaner. It was in my Christmas stocking after I had casually mentioned that I wanted to try it. I tried it the next day and couldn’t believe how well it worked… After air-drying, my brushes were soft, clean, and had a pleasant smell.

I was ordering something for O on drugstore.com a few days ago when I noticed a sale on E.L.F. products. After the success I had with the brush cleaner, I thought it would be silly not to take advantage of the even cheaper prices… I ended up ordering 4 things to try, plus a bar of African black soap that I’m way excited about.

The FedEx guy came today, and I was so excited to get my goodies that I ran outside in my jammies to meet him. I’m sure he was impressed by my wild hair and the streak of peanut butter on my cheek.

I have a toddler, ok?

So I immediately ripped the box open to examine my goodies. I ended up with a shimmer eye pencil, lip primer and plumper, an eyeshadow quad, and lip exfoliator.

And yes, the soap…which smells strongly of bubble gum. I know this because the very first thing I did upon opening the box was to peel the soap wrapper back a bit and stick my nose in it.

And then I went ahead and sniffed everything else.

Once O was down for a nap I took my new lovlies into the bathroom because there was no way I was waiting to try everything.

First up was the lip exfoliator. I ignored the package directions and massaged it into my lips straight from the tube. It was gritty, but not unpleasant, and it tasted like candy. Plus, my lips felt pretty smooth after!

Once they were exfoliated, I applied the primer and plumper. The primer seemed to smooth out my lips and I think would really make a lip color pop…but I couldn’t find my favorite lipstick. The plumper? Well, I’m not sure if it made them any bigger, but my lips did sting for a bit. It tasted like the cinnamon candy my grandma used make, so I’ll keep using it.

I tried the shimmer eyeliner next…

Pretty cool of them to put the sharpener in the lid, I think!

I was a little disappointed in this one, because I didn’t see much shimmer. Still, it went on smoothly and so far it hasn’t smuged. Also? That Pinterest trick where you draw a hashtag with liner and smudge to make a smokey eye? It actually works pretty well.

I should mention that I had no additional eye makeup/primer/mascara on in the pic… Only the E.L.F. liner.

I didn’t have a chance to try my eyeshadow quad.

I have pretty high hopes for it, though.

So there you have it. Proof that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get quality beauty products.

One other thing…

I accidentally ordered two of the lip exfoliator. I’ve decided to send it to one lucky reader…All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me what your absolute favorite beauty product is. I’ll randomly select a winner on Monday. Pretty easy, huh?*

Don’t be stingy, share this post so your friends have an opportunity to enter!

This giveaway has ended…Check back soon to see who won!

*One entry per person. Open to residents of the continental United States only. Sorry, family members are not eligible to win.

**This is NOT a sponsored post. ELF cosmetics has no idea who I am and I paid for all products myself.

Ok, so there’s my poorly – planned happy birthday to my blog celebration. Truth be told, this was kind of a life saver today because I’m frantically working on another project (that I started way too late, of course) and had no idea what to write about. Hooray!

Like this:

Well it seems a bit odd that a curmudgeon like me would be nominated for something called The Sunshine Award…But it happened! Sweet Jennifer from My Sweet Sanity was kind enough to nominate me. You should totally go spend some time on her blog…The good news is, pictures are calorie-free!

According to Jennifer, the rules are as follows:

Acknowledge the nominating blogger.

Share 11 random facts about yourself.

Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.

List 11 bloggers. They should be bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!

Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer & let all the bloggers know they’ve been nominated. You cannot nominate the blogger that nominated you.

Well here goes nothing…

Eleven Random Facts About Me

– Even though I took voice lessons and played guitar, I never learned how to read music.

– I love football (both college and NFL) and I have a fantasy league… As far as I’m concerned there are only two seasons: Football and boring.

I have loved writing since I figured out how to do it…I can remember locking myself in the bathroom at my grandma’s house to write a song about reading books when I was little. It was only natural that I pick up blogging eventually. Also? Yes, I was a nerd. I still am a nerd. I wear my nerd badge with pride.

2. What is your favorite part about blogging?

Unlike conversation, I can’t be interrupted in a blog post! That’s a big ol’ pet peeve of mine. Also, I’m a huge introvert and blogging (along with Twitter, texting, and Facebook) gives me a way to communicate comfortably.

3. What is your least favorite part about blogging?

I never know how something will be received. Sometimes I can come off as a little abrasive and I sometimes wonder if I’ve gone too far. I have yet to receive any hate mail, so I guess I’m ok.

4. What are your 3 favorite blogs and why?

Only three? Crap. I love a lot of blogs but here are the top three that come to mind:

The Bloggess… I just adore her. I can identify with her, she makes me laugh until I’m in danger of peeing on myself, and she seems to be a genuinely kind person.

Hyperbole and a Half… Another person that makes me laugh hysterically. I wish my crappy MSPaint drawings were half as cool as her illustrations.

Smitten Kitchen… The food this woman comes up with looks amazing. I’ve used a couple of her recipes to great success, so she definitely knows what’s up. If I could ever purchase a replacement for my super awesome camera that got broken, I would hope to photograph my food as beautifully as she does.

5. What is your favorite social media outlet and why?

At the moment, Twitter is my favorite. This isn’t going to sound very nice, but Facebook is just so full of ‘OMG, SELFIE!’ and ‘baking soda cures cancer!’ junk anymore that I don’t get much enjoyment out of it. I like Twitter because…Well, my reason doesn’t sound very nice, so we’ll just say I like Twitter.

6. Have you or will you ever vlog?

I have not…and I’m not sure if I will. I like the idea, but I kind of hate the way my recorded voice sounds. Plus, it seems like that would require looking presentable and I typically like to walk around my house with bedhead and no makeup. Ok, sometimes I go out in public that way, too…Hey, at least I put on pants.

7. What is one word that you would want people to describe your blog as being?

AWESOMESTBLOGEVER

What? That’s one word.

8. If you could (or have) work with one brand, which one would it be and why?

Oh, this one is tough…Can I say something like Procter & Gamble so I could test all of their new stuff? If not…I think Pampers would be a good company to work with. Gimme some free diapers, y’all!

9. What’s your favorite thing to blog about?

Life in general, especially when I have something funny to write about. I do enjoy food posts because they pretty much write themselves, but I love when I can bang out a good humor post.

10. Who’s your favorite housewife? (yes, I’m totally serious!)

ME! Can I say that? I don’t watch much tv so I can’t really make an informed decision about which of the Real Housewives is the best…

Without further ado, here are my ten nominees (in no particular order):

Like this:

Last night I started trying to get O to bed around 7:00 and he just wasn’t having it. I knew he was sleepy, but he’s also got another tooth trying to bust through. Add to that some wicked gas (from what, I don’t know) and you get a pretty grumpy boy.

So there I was, feeling frustrated because nothing seemed to be comforting my sweet boy and starting to get pretty tired and grumpy myself… but at one point he seemed to finally be sleeping for real. I plopped down on the couch and opened my Twitter app.

I noticed a conversation going on between Allie from Hyperbole and a Half and The Bloggess about having body parts removed. I thought, “Hey, I had something removed… maybe I can be one of the cool kids too!”

Imagine my surprise when this happened:

And then this happened:

I remembered that I had a pic of me holding Fred that never got posted because I look like a creep… But I thought, “Oh, what the hell!” and attempted to tweet it. Of course my Twitter app would pick that moment to refuse to work.

That’s how the creepy picture of me holding my tumor ended up on Instagram.

I’m sorry, Instagram.

Finally I was able to get the picture on Twitter. Just as I finished the Tweet, O woke up again. I abandoned my phone on the couch and headed up the stairs to my grumpy baby. While I rocked I could hear my phone just blowing up… I told myself that I really needed to unsubscribe from all of those damned email lists because the amount of junk I get is astounding.

When O was asleep (again) I went down to check my phone. And then I almost died.

HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS.

What followed was an insane amount of tweets and replies and I was trying so hard to keep up that I thought my thumbs might fall off. I just could not believe the enormous response… and I was so touched and humbled by all of the kind things that complete strangers were saying that I almost cried right in the middle of all of it.

When The BF came home…my dear, internet-phobe BF that would sooner eat mountain oysters than sign up for Twitter… I must have looked like a puppy, because I was practically vibrating with excitement. What came out of my mouth probably sounded a lot like this:

“OHMYGAAAAAHHHHHHHITWEETEDAPICOFMYTUMORTOTHEBLOGGESSANDSHESAIDIWAS

COOLANDNOWTHEWHOLEINTERNETTHINKSI’MAWESOMEFORHAVINGATUMORINABUCKET!”

At that moment, it occurred to me that I should check my blog stats…and I almost died again.

“THEWHOLEINTERNETISREADINGMYBLOG!”

The BF, bless his heart, was excited for me…even though he doesn’t really get into the internet. To really illustrate my excitement, I ran to the bookshelf and grabbed my copy of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and then shook it at him.

He really puts up with a lot.

At any rate, with all of the excitement plus my grumpy, teething baby…I didn’t sleep much last night. For once, I really didn’t care…because who else can say that their giant fibroid was Twitter-famous for a night?